THE CIVIL WAR
1861-1865
THE CIVIL WAR
• After SC seceded in Dec. 1860, 6 more
states joined them by Feb. 1861.
• Confederate States of America:
• Capital city: Montgomery, Ala.
• Confederate Constitution
– Legalized slavery, Presidential term 6 yrs, line-item
veto,
– 2/3s approval needed to amend it., states could
nullify laws,
– No importation of slaves,
– Jefferson Davis-President
– Alexander Stephens—Vice-President
• THE UNION
– PRESIDENT: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
– VICE-PRESIDENT: HANNIBAL HAMLIN
– CAPITAL CITY: WASHINGTON, DC
– CABINET:
• WILLIAM SEWARD-SEC. OF STATE
• EDWIN STANTON- SEC. OF WAR
• CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY FORCED TO RETIRE
– 1st INAUGURAL ADDRESS:
•
WASHINGTON, D
START OF THE WAR
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Ft. Sumter –April 12, 1861
Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers.
More states secede:
Capital moved to Richmond, Va.
Lincoln asks Lee to lead his army. Lee
declines.
• Lincoln appointed Irwin McDowell to lead the
army.
COMPARISON OF THE BLUE AND THE GRAY
CATEGORY
NORTH
SOUTH
POPULATION
25,000,000
9,000,000 (40% slaves)
INDUSTRY/
AGRICULTURE
95% factories
food crops
Tredegar Iron Works
1 metal forge, 2 gun factories
cotton, tobacco
RAILROAD
MILEAGE
3 x mileage of south, Standard
gauge
State gauge
MONEY
Greenbacks, gold supply
No backing
GOVERNMENT
Established 1776
No foreign recognition 1861
NAVY
Naval officers stayed loyal
100,000 sailors
Very few
MILITARY
LEADERS
Winfield Scott, George McClellan
Irwin McDowell, Ulysses Grant,
William T. Sherman, Phil Sheridan
Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, PTG Beauregard, James Longstreet
CAUSE
Save the Union, free the slaves
Southern Independence
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
• Union’s major weaknesses:
– Over confidence,
– Long lines of supply and communications
– Fight an offensive war
• Southern Advantages:
– Defending home and way of life
– “Better fighters”
– Better Generals
• Weakness:
– Cotton Diplomacy
• Civil War Names
– North= Union, Federals, Yankees, “Billy Yank”, Blue, USA
– South=Confederacy, Rebs, Rebels, “Johnny Reb”, Gray,
CSA
– North= Army of the Potomac, Army of the Cumberland
– South= Army of Northern Virginia, Army of the Tennessee
• Names of Battles
– North= closest physical feature (streams, creeks, churches,
mountain)
– South= closest village or town
• 1st major battle of the Civil War
– 1st Bull Run (Manassas) Virginia Railroad center July 1861
• Witnessed by 1000s of spectators anxious to watch only battle
of Civil War!!
• North-Gen. Irwin McDowell, 35,000 troops
• South- PGT Beauregard, 22, 000 troops, with 11,000
reinforcements led by Gen. Thomas Jackson
• Earned nickname “Stonewall” at this battle
• “Great Skeedaddle” US army routed and retreated toward Washington,
DC
– Results:
» South confident that they can win the war.
» North realizes war will not be 90 days long
» Lincoln replaces McDowell with George McClellan.
UNION PLAN TO WIN THE WAR!!
•
Gen. George McClellan—Army of the Potomac
– Brilliant motivator, organizer and trainer of troops
– Poor field commander and overly cautious
– Spent next 9 months training the Northern army
•
Anaconda Plan (Winfield Scott--1862)
– 1. naval Blockade of Confederate coastline
– 2. Secure the Mississippi River all the way to New Orleans.
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Split CSA in half.
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Cutting off “breadbasket” from the East.
– 3. Keep constant military pressure on Richmond, Va.
– 4. Attack the Confederate mid-section—Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi.
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Battles of 1861 and 1862
– Missouri pacified by Gen. John C. Fremont
– Northern Arkansas fell to Union forces
– Port Royal, SC, fell to Union navy.
– Feb. 1862 Ft. Donelson, Tennessee, and Ft. Henry, Ky, taken by Gen. Grant
• Earns nickname “Unconditional surrender”, drinking problem first exposed
– Mar. 1862—Blockade in place, NC coast secured.
• Battle of the USS Monitor v. CSS Merrimac (CSS Virginia)
• 1st modern naval battle Ironclad ships, Merrimac withdrew.
BATTLES OF 1861-1862 CONTINUED
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Nov. 1861 “Trent Affair” USS San Jacinto, HMS Trent John Slidell
April 1862 Savannah harbor fell to Union forces.
April 1862 New Orleans fell to Adm. David Farragut, occupied by Gen.
Benjamin Butler (Union)—slaves as contraband of war.
April 1862 McClellan begins “Peninsular Campaign”
– Objective:
– 1. Capture Richmond by outflanking Confederate defenses from the
Atlantic coast.---110,000 men vs. Gen J. Johnston’s 40,000
– Results:
– 1. McClellan wins “Battle of 7 Pines”—Union army 25 miles east of
Richmond. Gen. Johnston wounded.
– 2. Pres. Davis replaceed Johnson with Gen. Robert E. Lee.
3. June 1862 Lee splits forces, sends Stonewall Jackson with
15,000 troops up Shenandoah Valley toward Washington. “Foot
Cavalry”.
4. McClellan sends 20,000 toward Washington, Jackson doubles
back and he and Lee attack McClellan’s positions “Battle of 7 Days
before Richmond”.
5. After fierce fighting and heavy casualties on both sides,
McClellan retreated to Norfolk. Richmond saved, McClellan fired
and replaced by Gen. John Pope.
WAR ON THE HOMEFRONT 1862
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North
– Economics: 1861—mild depression: closed cotton mills, bank
failures.
• 1862--Economy improved once the war started being fought on
large scale.—wartime industries.
– Politics: Many Democrats opposed the war but were loyal to USA.
– Some were Radicals:
• 1. Sons of Liberty and Knights of the Golden Circle=
Copperheads, sympathized with the South
• 2. Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus to deal with them.
– Imprisoned 10,000 people during war without ever putting them on
trial—leading Copperhead Rep. Clement Vallandigham
– D-Ohio)
Foreign Affairs: England and France did not officially recognize CSA
but supported it materially.
• Construction of CSS Alabama
• Relations with England had been deteriorating in 1862—near
war-- Trent Affair.
SOUTHERN HOMEFRONT 1861-1862
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ECONOMICS:
– Inflation—7000% by war’s end
– Union blockade created economic hardships felt throughout the
South.
– Food and material shortages
– Loss of slaves
POLITICALLY:
– Cotton Diplomacy
• Cotton Embargo failed
– Famine
– Surplus of Egyptian and Indian cotton
– Conscription Law
• Unfair to poor
• Rich could hire substitutes
• Owner of 20 or more slaves and certain occupations…draft
exempt
• “Twenty Negro Law”
– “Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight”
WAR IN THE WEST 1862
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Union army in the West= Army of the Cumberland
Southern army in the West= Army of Tennessee
(Union east=Army of the Potomac)
(Southern east=Army of Northern Virginia)
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Gen. US Grant’s plan 1. capture Memphis, from there work south
toward New Orleans 2. This would complete 2 parts of the
Anaconda Plan—splitting of Confederacy and the capturing of the
River.
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BATTLE OF SHILOH (Pittsburg Landing, Tenn)
– April 6, 7 1862 Grant v. AS Johnston, Beauregard
– 24,000 casualties in 2 days, Union victory despite suffering
more casualties—War of Attrition, win opened the way to the
Mississippi.
– Many called for Grant’s resignation-- “Butcher”
– First modern land battle—
– repeating rifles (Union cavalry)
– goal to kill men not to capture a place
– bayonet charges now were suicide
WAR IN THE EAST 1862
• 2nd Bull Run
– Aug. 29-30 Gen. Pope v. Jackson and Longstreet
– Union attempts 3rd invasion of Richmond.
– South wins decisive victory.
– Lincoln fires Pope and replaces him with McClellan.
• Lee invades the North
• Goal: to flank Washington, DC and attack it from the
northwest.
– Unexpectedly a Union soldier finds Lee’s battle plans. Special
Order 191
– Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg, Md.)
• Sept. 15-18 Gen. McClellan v. Lee
• McClellan drove Lee from the battlefield but did pursue
him.
• Single bloodiest day of the Civil War Sept. 17—26,000
casualties
• Tactically the battle was a draw, but Lee retreated back
into Virginia, strategically Lincoln viewed as a victory.
• McClellan fired and replaced by Gen. Ambrose Burnside
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
• Northern view of slavery had become more abolitionist like
by 1862.
• 1. Lincoln concluded that slavery needed to be abolished.
• 2. Lincoln’s first plan -- “compensated emancipation” but it
was defeated in Congress.
• 3. Lincoln then turned to his war powers as a way of using
slavery as an agent to weaken the Southern government.
• 4. In order for it to have meaning he needed a great Union
victory:
--Antietam was that victory.
5. Sept. 1862—Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation
It would become effective on Jan 1, 1863.
It simply stated: “all persons held as slaves within any
States in rebellion against the US shall be forever free.”
It legalized what the Union army had already been doing.
It also kept England and France out of the war.
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Slaves in the border states were not freed.
It changed the reason for the war: End Slavery.
Freedmen were encouraged to join the Union army.
54th Massachusetts formed—attack on Battery Wagner in
1864.
• Resistance to the Emancipation Proclamation was stiff:
– 1. Increased Southern determination to win.
– 2. Poor immigrant northerners resented it. Freedmen would now
move North and compete with them for jobs.
– 3. The Democratic Party opposed it and won Congressional seats
in 1862 election.
• Draft Law:
– March 1863 Northern Conscription Law. Similar to Southern
version. $300 Commutation Fee.
– Irish immigrants resented being drafted to fight a war to free
slaves so they could come and take their jobs.
– Spring and summer 1863 NY City immigrants riot over the
draft because of the Emancipation Proclamation. 100s killed.
OTHER MAJOR BATTLES OF 1862
• Fredericksburg (Virginia)
– Dec. 13, 1862 Burnside v. Lee
– Union attempts 4th invasion of Richmond
– Union attempts a frontal assault on the heavily fortified
Confederate position at Marye’s Heights, suffers heavy
casualties.
– Southern victory, Union casualties 3-1 v. Confederate
– Lincoln fires Burnside and replaces him with Joseph
Hooker.
• Battles of 1863 “Year of Decision”
• Chancellorsville (Virginia)
– Union attempts 5th invasion of Richmond—Lee’s “Greatest
Victory”
– May 1-4 Hooker v. Lee
– Army of the Potomac was as large as it ever was
125,000.
1863 continued
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Chancellorsville contd.
– Lee splits his army and Jackson outflanks Union positions and Union
army caught between Lee and Jackson.
– Stonewall Jackson killed
– Lincoln demotes Hooker and puts Gen. George Meade as Cmdr. Army of
the Potomac
– Lee decides on 2nd invasion of North—
– Harrisburg, Pa. Important northern communications center. Telegraph
lines from DC, NYC, Philadelphia and Chicago met there
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Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi
– May 22 Grant and Sherman begin the siege of last major Confederate
stronghold on Mississippi River
– Vicksburg defended by Gen. Pemberton (from Pa.)
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Battle of Gettysburg (Pa.)
– July 1-July 3 Meade v. Lee
– Greatest battle in American history.
– The Turning Point of the war for the North.
– 3rd day—Pickett’s Charge “High-water Mark” of the Confederacy
– Joshua Chamberlain, George Pickett, JEB Stuart
– 50,000 casualties
– The most decisive Union victory of the war.
• Fall of Vicksburg
– July 4 Pemberton surrenders to Grant
– Sept. 9 Chattanooga falls to Union forces led by Gen
Rosecrans—Union controls all of Tennessee.
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Sept. 19, 20 Battle of Chickamauga (Georgia)
Gen Bragg v. Gen Rosecrans
Confederate counterattack
South had North outnumbered, South won.
Union army retreated back to Chattanooga.
Last Southern victory.
– Nov. 23-25 Battle of Lookout Mountain
Grant v. Bragg “Battle above the Clouds”
First large-scale use of troop transport by train.
Union victory, Bragg retreats toward Atlanta.
Nov. 29 Lincoln issues Gettysburg Address
Defines the meaning of the war.
THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
FOUR SCORE AND SEVEN YEARS AGO OUR FATHERS BROUGHT FORTH ON THIS
CONTINENT, A NEW NATION, CONCEIVED IN LIBERTY, AND DEDICATED TO
THE PROPOSITION THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. NOW WE ARE
ENGAGED IN A GREAT CIVIL WAR TESTING WHETHER THAT NATION, OR
ANY NATION, SO CONCEIVED AND SO DEDICATED, CAN LONG ENDURE.
WE ARE MET ON A GREAT BATTLEFIELD OF THAT WAR. WE HAVE COME TO
DEDICATE A PORTION OF THAT FIELD, AS A FINAL RESTING PLACE FOR
THOSE WHO HERE GAVE THEIR LIVES THAT THAT NATION MIGHT LIVE. IT
IS ALTOGETHER FITTING AND PROPER THAT WE SHOULD DO THIS.
BUT IN A LARGER SENSE, WE CANNOT DEDICATE—WE CANNOT CONSECRATE—
WE CANNOT HALLOW– THIS GROUND. THE BRAVE MEN, LIVING AND DEAD,
WHO STRUGGLED HERE, HAVE CONSECRATED IT FAR ABOVE OUR POOR
POWER TO ADD OR DETRACT. THE WORLD WILL LITTLE NOTE, OR LONG
REMEMBER WHAT WE SAY HERE, BUT IT CAN NEVER FORGET WHAT THEY
DID HERE. IT IS FOR US THE LIVING, RATHER, TO BE DEDICATED HERE TO
THE UNFINISHED WORK WHICH THEY WHO FOUGHT HERE HAVE THUS FAR
SO NOBLY ADVANCED. IT IS RATHER FOR US TO BE HERE DEDICATED TO
THE GREAT TASK REMAINING BEFORE US—THAT FROM THESE HONORED
DEAD WE TAKE INCREASED DEVOTION TO THAT CAUSE FOR WHICH THEY
GAVE THEIR LAST FULL MEASURE OF DEVOTION THAT WE HERE HIGHLY
RESOLVE THAT THESE DEAD SHALL NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN—THAT THIS
NATION UNDER GOD, SHALL HAVE A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM—AND THAT
GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE, SHALL NOT
PERISH FROM THE EARTH.
BEGINNING OF THE END
AFTER LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN
Mar. 1864, GRANT APPOINTED AS COMMANDER OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC
– SHERMAN APPOINTED COMMANDER OF THE ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND
– GRANT THEN MADE SUPREME COMMANDER OF US ARMY
– Gen. MEADE MADE FIELD COMMANDER OF ARMY OF THE POTOMAC
– FINAL UNION PLAN
– CAPTURE GEORGIA, PUSH NORTH INTO THE CAROLINAS AND VIRGINIA
– PUT LEE IN BETWEEN TWO HUGE ARMIES WITH NO WHERE TO ESCAPE.
GRANT’S OFFENSIVE AGAINST LEE JUNE 1864-April, 1865 “ON TO RICHMOND CAMPAIGN”
– SHERMAN’S “MARCH TO THE SEA”
• MAY 1864 SEIGE OF ATLANTA
ELECTION OF 1864
– LINCOLN (Johnson) V. GEN. McCLELLAN
– SHERMAN CAPTURES ATLANTA SEPT. 1
– SHERIDAN CLEARS THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY.
– NOV 1864 LINCOLN WON RE-ELECTION
• MARCH TO SAVANNAH—TOTAL WAR
• SHERMAN’S MARCH THROUGH SOUTH CAROLINA
• LINCOLN HAS CONGRESS PROPOSE THE 13TH AMENDMENT.
• LINCOLN’S 2ND INAUGURAL ADDRESS OUT LINES RECONSTRUCTION.
SEIGE OF PETERSBURG
– TRENCH WARFARE—James Longstreet.
– Pres. DAVIS EMANCIPATES THE SLAVES WHO WILL FIGHT FOR THE SOUTH
– ALEXANDER STEPHENS ATTEMPTS PEACE NEGOTIATIONS--failed
APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE
– APRIL 9, 1865 LEE SURRENDERS “McLEAN HOUSE”
– TERMS
– APRIL 12, LINCOLN VISITS RICHMOND
– LINCOLN ASSASSINATED APRIL 14, 1865
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• April 26, 1865 Gen. Joseph Johnston surrendered to Gen.
Sherman at Durham, NC. The war was over.
• May 1, 1865– Confederate government disbanded Abbeville,
SC
• May 10, 1865– Jefferson Davis captured in Irwinville, Ga.
• May 13, 1865—Battle of Palmito Ranch (Texas) last battle of the
war.
RESULTS OF THE WAR
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WAR CRIMES COMMISSION CREATED.
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DEATH AND DESTRUCTION:
ADVANCEMENTS IN MEDICINE:
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ADVANCEMENTS IN WARFARE:
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CIVIL WAR LAWS:
– Gen. Henry Wirz—Commandant of the Andersonville POW Camp executed.
– Responsible for the executions of the Lincoln assassination conspirators.
– SURGERY– USE OF ANESTHESIA (ETHER)
– NURSING CARE
– BATTLEFIELD HOSPITALS
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TRENCH WARFARE
GATTLING GUN
SUBMARINE
IRON CLAD SHIPS
REPEATING CARBINES
GRENADES
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HOMESTEAD ACT
TRANSCONTINENTAL (PACIFIC) RAILWAYS ACT
MORRILL LAND GRANT ACT
FREEDMEN’S BUREAU ACT